Time and Tides Archives

When the pink glow covered Cid's body, he had a sudden moment of confusion. Just as the glow came, it left and found himself in an opera house with two other men. Cid was cautious with them and asked, "W-Where am I?"

He looked around at the empty building he activated his visor to scan the area, and to determine, what in the hell is going on. Cid wasn't much for all of a sudden surprises.

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Vossler was also unaware by what means he had ended up here. Although buildings such as this were not uncommon in the grand city, it differed distinctly from the inn where he had been only moments prior.

Spotting the others, his first instinct was to draw his blade and demand that this sorcery be reversed, but considering one looked just as confused as himself, and the other almost surprised by their presence, he opted for another approach while remaining on guard.

"I am still growing accustomed to this world--is it not uncommon to find oneself in a different location from where they were previously?"

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Locke was unsure of what was happening? "Has the Opera House come too?"

At this moment, he heard the familiar sound of the opera music as well as Celes' voice practicing the opera. As the other two fade and are forgotten, he walks right to the dressing room.

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"I wouldn't know, I've only recently come to Gaia," stated the man, with the visor on his head, scanning the area. He found everything very odd, but nothing too out of the ordinary, despite the fact that they were transported here.

Lifting up his visor, he glanced at the other man and replied, "What about you?" He waited fro a response from the thief, hopefully to get some answers.

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That was certainly odd. It was as if the third man had decided to ignore their presence altogether. Vossler watched as Locke moved away, before pulling out his sky phone--and when that failed to tell him where he was, turning toward the one with the visor.

"He seems to know this place. I suggest we follow after him." Without waiting to see if Cid would decide to come along or not, the dark knight starts off after the thief, hoping that Locke might be able to shed some light on this whole situation.

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Locke is sucked away into his memory. He strides straight into the dressing room, pauses a moment as if he's looking at something he shouldn't before turning around and blushing as red as a tomato. "Aye, Yai, Yai, Izzat...you?! I...once abandoned somebody when she needed me..."

He proceed to turn around and walk right through the two men standing in front of him pausing only to mention, "That ribbon suits you."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJvmT5itByI

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Cid certainly was confused why the men ignored them and followed them yelling, "H-Hey!" When the tactical man arrived, he saw one of them was acting even stranger than before, talking to himself and ignoring the people around him. He quickly walked over to him and began to wave his hand on front of his face.

He looked at the one who actually noticed him and stated, "I think something is wrong with him, as if he's seeing something we're not able to focus on...or something that's there in his mind, but not ours."

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Vossler watched a moment longer, hoping that the one man who seemed familiar with their surroundings would snap out of it after too long. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case.

"This condition is similar to one I have seen before, though I know not whether a cure exists in this world." Assuming Locke to be under the influence of some mind addling spell, Vossler instead turned his focus to the oddly dressed individual wearing the visor.

"Perhaps whatever sorcery brought us here has also affected this man's mind."

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All of a sudden Locke shook his head and returned to reality. He looked first towards Cid, then to Vossler before turning beat red. "Were you standing at the door the whole time I was with her?"

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Cid looked at the one who could actually speak and replied, "This must be one strong spell to cause such a reaction! But at the moment it seems to be only affecting him."

When the other person snapped out of what ever he was seeing, Cid simply asked, "Her?"

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"This place appears empty, save for the three of us who stand here now," he elaborated Cid's point. "There was no one else--you appeared to be speaking to someone who was not there."

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Locke visibly relaxed. He surely didn't want to hear about it from these two. He urgently hoped to get a move on without their prying questions, "The exit's this way."

As he approached the door, he turned back upon the opera house smiling at the memory of watching the performance.

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He was still confused about this place but none the less he was ready to leave it and get on with finding a way out. Back to Gaia, or anywhere for that matter. The mechanic headed for the door, before stopping and stating to everyone, "My name is Cid by the way." He stated his name with a cheerful smile then nodded and headed for the exit.

The whole event was still peculiar, leaving the young man thinking hard about every single little thing that occured. Who was that man talking about when he said her? Why did both of them seem odd? What is this place? Who brought us here or what? He hated having questions and not enough of the answers to solve them.

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"Vossler," Was all that the knight would say in response to Cid's introduction. Getting to know his current company wasn't the most pressing issue at the moment. Finding his way back to Lindblum took top priority.

"If this is the exit, then I suggest we not waste time." Pushing past the door that Locke had led them to, Vossler stepped out into an all-too-familiar scene. Locke and Cid would be able to see the royal city of Rabanastre in the distance, while Vossler moved deeper into the Estersand, where a group of cadet soldiers were waiting for his orders.

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"Locke, Treas..." As they exited the Opera House, Locke was stunned into silence staring towards the castle. "This isn't where the Opera House is." He tugged on his bandanna to wipe the sweat that had already formed from the sweltering heat.

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Cid saw the city in front of him and was completely shocked. "Incredible!" stated the visored one as he lowered to study it. But again, he noticed the same strange readings as he did with the Opera House. He looked at Vossler and Locke and replied, "Something strange is going on here, what ever was in that Opera House is in here as well." He was a bit timid, he seemed to be okay and able to see his other cohorts.

He looked at Vossler and replied, "Vossler sir, are you okay?"

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Vossler didn't hear Cid call for him. In fact, the presence of the others seemed to slip his mind completely as he approached his training group, shouting out orders to a group of invisible cadets, while walking up and down their lines to watch as they did as instructed--stopping every once and a while to correct their form with a blade.

This went on for a little while longer, before Vossler seemed to regain himself. He looked confused as he turned back toward the others, crossing the distance between them to rejoin his group of two strangers.

"It would appear that we are all susceptible to this magic."

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Locke watched Vossler lead the grains of sand. "What do you mean?" It was hard to believe that this place had anything in common with the Opera House, but he knew that Cid had no reason to lie.

Locke quipped back to Vossler when he rejoined the ragtag band, "Too bad, this magic doesn't do anything for the heat. And you lived in this?"

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The young blond haired man nodded and replied, "And since the two of you have already been subjected the only person that's left is me." He was highly curious looking down deep in thought.

Finally he looked at the other two and replied, "Alright, looks like I got no choice, maybe if I go through whatever the two of you went through we can get out of this place and carry on with our lives." With that Cid, took a giant deep breath and continued forward.

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"Heat is something you grow accustomed to in a desert nation," he pointed out. Apparently Locke was from a more temperate region. When Cid added his two cents to the situation, Vossler thought it was as sound an idea as any.

"Perhaps a doorway will lead us to our next destination, in that case. Follow me, it isn't far to the city." That said, Vossler started off toward the large city in the distance.

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Except by the time he'd finished leading them through the Estersand and to the great East Gate of the royal city of Rabanastre, his two traveling companions were probably read to collapse.

"It looks like this place is as abandoned as your Opera House. Usually, the gates are teeming with activity. We'll have to push it open ourselves in order to head inside."

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Locke wondered where the castle was when you really needed it as it sure would have been nice to have ridden to the gates. "I think I prefer the caves to the sand."

He joined Vossler in helping to open the gate, "I wonder what's in there."

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Cid looked around the city and saw the gate and began to help with the effort. However, when Cid touched it only a slight bit, the gate released as Cid fell in face first. The area around him was very odd, an underground chamber where a very odd shapings and colored rocks. Something not native or even normal in most places. But to Cid, this was something far more interesting.

The mechanic pulled down his visor and started scanning the place, seeing nothing was there. However when he lifted it back up, he noticed a train right in front of him. Cid grinned as he stated, "There, it's done!" He proceeded to hug the train (to which the other two men would be seeing Cid hugging a rock) and added, "Elizabeth! You're finished! My greatest accomplishment, the pride of my work!" He rubbed his face up against the train and babbling silly nonsense to it. It was almost as if he was in love with this machine

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"This is no coincidence," Vossler pointed out, watching as Cid familiarized himself with the nearest rock in the cave--a cave that was obviously not the royal city of Rabanastre.

"But who would wish to cast such a curse? And over three strangers, no less." He was still new to Gaia, but somehow he was certain that Ashe, Rasler, Ondore or even Al-Cid would have filled him in ahead of time if this sort of thing were a common occurrence.

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Locke stared at the man rubbing against a rock. "It doesn't make any sense." He pondered what was happening to them. He simply couldn't imagine any reason to subject them to such nice memories. The only thing he'd have changed would have been to share them with someone close.

Still staring at Cid, he asked aloud, "Who do you think this Elizabeth is?"

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Cid continued to be fascinated with his train, he was proud of this machine and all it could do. A giant smile came across his face as he stated, "With you, everything will be better. Everything!" He managed to grab a rag that was close by to him and began to polish up the train slightly (Reality, he's just rubbing a rock onto the bigger rock). He was completely happy in his own mind.

However everything snapped back to him as the train vanished and reality kicked in. Cid blinked at the rock, then glanced back at the other two, then back at the rock. A heavy sigh escaped his lips as he stated, "Let me guess, I was acting strange wasn't I?" He knew the answer, problem was everything felt so...real

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Vossler made no reply to Locke's question, assuming Elizabeth to be Cid's lover, what with the way he was rubbing the rock. He looked off to the side when the second rock came into play Clearly this was a more private memory than the ones shared thus far. It wasn't until Cid finally seemed to snap out of it again that Vossler returned his attention toward the blond.

"It appears none of us are spared the re-telling of past experiences." And then to Locke. "Perhaps if we move quickly, we will be able to find an exit now that each of us has fallen victim to this curse."

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While their journey had only barely begin, Locke was already prepared to leave. "There can't be much more to this. Let's hurry." He guessed that they needed to continue forward as they began to leave their current location.

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